Eileen Hull

Three dimensional art... with heart

Deck the halls…

It usually takes till about now for me to get in the holiday spirit. Today my friends Tina and Lorine and I went up to a historical wheat plantation in Leesburg where they featured wedding dresses of women who had lived there. It was beautiful weather and a great day to be there. Then we went on to lunch. We decided to go somewhere together instead of giving gifts this year. I am so blessed to have several circles of great friends and I don’t tell them enough how much I love them.

But now, back to a depressing topic… I am cleaning the basement/studio and wonder why in the world I let it get like this. I’m on a roll right now though… just in time for CHA coming up when another disaster will be created!

A couple of things… I appeared on Inspired at Home: Spotlight on Creativity Dec. 7. The show archives are up if you want to see the show.

The Sizzix blog was supposed to go live today but due to a tech problem it was delayed… hopefully tomorrow it will go up.

Last thing. I was going through some stuff and found this little angel I had gotten at a thrift store somewhere. Is it my imagination or does she look faintly annoyed? Something about the way she’s clutching that harp reminds me of my mom’s expression in the rearview mirror as she is driving my sisters and I to piano lessons as we were goofing around and being obnoxious in the back seat and generally getting on her nerves… good times…

Tomorrow night is Book Club so I will be baking today for the cookie exchange and family members that will soon be arriving. Christmas is coming!

Sizzix ScoreBoard Blog Hop #5

Thanks for stopping by today! I can’t wait for you to see what the fabulous ScoreBoard designers have come up with for you this time. Every Hop, I am blown away by their creativity and style and so appreciate the time they put in to working on these projects, especially during the busy holiday season.

Today we have two bloggers new to the Hop: Debra Quartermain is a designer friend from Canada who works in all kinds of mediums, but I think my my personal favorites are the projects she creates with fabric. Debra designs cuddly little creatures from felt, fabric and fleece- you just want to hug them. We also have Violette Clark here for the first time (another Canadian)! I met Violette two years ago at CHA when we had a booth next to her in the License & Design Section. We spent a lot of fun time getting to know each other. Violette is a multi-media artist and loves to work with lots of color and techniques. She has a purple house- check out her blog!

The die we are working with today is the Business Card Box. This box is quite versatile. Not only does it fit business cards but it’s the perfect size for gift cards- very handy at this time of year! Another reason I like it is because it’s so quick and easy to assemble.

I decided to do a little surgery on mine. My project is a magnetic organizer. I plan on putting it on the refrigerator next to my calendar. I am constantly looking for a pencil, paper and post-its so I can make notes and write in dates/times while talking on the phone. After I had cut out the die and trimmed the top flap off, I inserted the black matboard die-cut in the Textured Impression folder and ran it through the Big Shot. Then I sanded off the raised part of the image down to the white core. I will tell you, my arm got tired- it took a while to do! It was then inked with a light blue dye ink. I printed out labels and adhered them to the die cut tabs and threaded ribbon through the back.

Black and blue matboard were layered on top of each other with a strip of white cardstock edged with a Martha Stewart punch design in between. The Crop-o-dile was used to punch two sets of holes to thread ribbon through for a pencil holder. Foam adhesive strips were placed under the blue layer for popped up dimension. On the back, three strips of one inch magnet tape was adhered to hold the whole piece on the fridge. I added black matboard die cut flowers randomly to the background along with a narrow ribbon at the top.

I also used a couple of flowers to decorate magnet clips I had found at Ikea a while ago. This will be good for coupons.

For a look at some more cool projects, check out the blogs of my talented designer friends!

Denise Clason
Jenn Ellefson
Bonnie Bruns
Korie B
Violette Clark
Karen Burniston
Candice Windham
Debra Quartermain
Cindi Bisson
Ann Butler
Niki Meiners

This and That


Crazy week here… I went down to hear my daughter sing in her Choral concert at college yesterday and was so excited to stop in this great thrift shop that’s on the way. Pulled into the parking lot and it was CLOSED 🙁 Last time I was there I found some great jars of buttons.

Tomorrow morning I fly out to see my son who got back two weeks ago from Iraq! Can’t wait to make sure he’s really here and fine.

On Monday at 10 AM I will be appearing on another Facebook LIVE show with Tiffany Windsor. Please tune in and see some ideas for last minute Christmas gift packaging as well as great tips for the holidays by other fun guests.

Giving thanks…

A great big THANKS to all who attended the Barn Sale. We were able to collect 6 giant Rubbermaid tubs of food for LINK, our local food pantry, and our sales were up 24% over last year! What a great weekend, despite the rain. We so appreciate our loyal customers who come every year and buy from our local (and some not local) craftspeople. We truly give thanks for your loyalty and support!

Last night I had the pleasure of showing some of my latest projects on an Inspired at Home Pajama Party. This was hosted by Tiffany Windsor and Maria Nerius. They provide a comfy forum for crafters from all around the globe to share their latest craft projects, tips and techniques. One of the best things about the show? PJ’s are perfectly acceptable! Click here to see a (not hideous) shot of me and a project 🙂

Let’s see… what else is new? There is going to be some exciting news from Sizzix very soon. Can’t wait to share that with you all… I am still working on the order of 1800 cards. The first 800 were delivered and now the next batch of 600 is due on Monday and the remaining 400 the week after! Thanks to Jenn and Amy for coming over this afternoon and getting a good number put together and ready to go. Tomorrow is packing and prepping for the show at Fairfax High School on Saturday and Sunday.

Another Blog Hop is coming up this Wednesday. Hope you can stop by and see what my prolific designer buddies have come up with using my Sizzix ScoreBoards dies. HEY! I just went to Sizzix.com to grab the web address for you and see that ScoreBoards are scrolling through on the banner! (you have to watch for a few seconds… but it’s there- WOW- cool 🙂

One of my projects will be coming out in an e-magazine called Totally-Creative. You should definitely check this publication out- primo designers, great range of mediums and projects and beautifully photographed and laid out.

OK, now it’s back to work for me. Next time I will have a pic for you… Enjoy your weekend!

1800 handmade cards!


It’s a challenge. And a check! I took a custom job a few weeks ago to produce 1800 holiday cards for a non-profit organization in DC. It has been really pushing me to work on a schedule and a budget. Maybe you are considering making your own Christmas cards and wonder where to begin. I’d like to share some tips with you for mass producing cards of any kind.

First, keep the design simple. Every little touch and flourish that you add, will also add time. I had a general idea of what the client wanted so instead of using a lot of stuff, I tried to focus on using beautiful papers that had texture and contrast. You will pay a little more, but the time saved is worth it.

I printed the cards at home. It took a little fiddling and adjusting in Illustrator (any program would work- Publisher or probably even Word) to line everything up so it prints in the center and right colors. I was so impressed with my 3 year old HP OfficeJet 6210. It printed 600 cards on one color ink cartridge! I have been refilling my ink at CostCo for $13.99 per color cartridge so that’s not bad at all. The only thing is my tray can only hold about 20 sheets at a time- I am using heavy 80# cardstock. I did purchase a heavy duty paper trimmer and am sad to say I am going to send it back. It will not cut cardstock- only text weight paper 🙁 so I wound up using my Logan mat cutter to stack and cut all of the cards which worked just fine. I cut all of the specialty paper on this too and it really went pretty quickly. The largest layer of the stack of presents has a scrolled shape punched out. I made a jig for the punch so all I had to do was insert 2 pieces of the paper and punch, over and over! Watched several episodes of Project Runway and that was done. I am currently working on the second layer which requires a 11″ piece of ribbon wrapped around the paper and tied in a knot. My friends Lorine and Jenn came over to help today but this is the most time consuming stage so far. The third layer is just a plain piece of paper which was cut very quickly.

Measure and cut carefully. Order enough paper so that mistakes are factored in. Nothing like the last minute stress of having to run out and locate more supplies! The funny thing was that the ribbon was the hardest thing to locate (at a good price and enough of it). I finally found that at a local floral supply wholesalers. If you have a tax number, this is a good time to use it.

I am setting up a work station on my dining room table to assemble the cards. The contract calls for 800 by Monday so I am hurrying to get it done. GOOD NEWS! My army captain son is on his way home from Iraq! He may have a quick layover in NJ so if I get the call, want to be ready to zip up and say, “Welcome HOME!